Individuals in all careers spend years cultivating the skills and knowledge needed for success. Academics are no different. After all, it is professors who educate future professionals for nearly every line of work.The academic profession, however, is transforming rapidly, especially in these uncertain economic times. Contributors to this volume examine the unique challenges faced by faculty today and what those challenges mean for the American university more broadly. Understanding exactly what professors do and how academia is changing can help us better assess the potential threats to the profession. With essays on key topics -- including structural and cognitive change, socialization and deviance, career experience, and professional autonomy and regulation -- leading scholars in sociology and higher education discuss the fate of this central profession. This comprehensive study will long serve as a landmark work in American higher education. The American Academic Profession is ideal for students and scholars in the field as well as for administrators and policymakers concerned with the future of the academy.
